Science Briefs: New Planets, X Prize and Nobel Winner

After a busy, informative and celebratory day learning about space travel from Burt Rutan at yesterday's 2006 Breakthrough Awards, we thought we'd get you caught up on what else scientists are finding out there—and back here on Earth.

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope announced yesterday that they had discovered a whopping 16 new planets—all about the size of Jupiter—orbiting shockingly close to their sun-like home star. While that kind of hot, short-rotation activity was otherwise unheard of in the Milky Way galaxy until now, scientists are holding out hope that the new extrasolar planets might have the conditions for alien life.

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Meanwhile, the X Prize Foundation, which gave its Ansari prize to Rutan in 2004 and is prepping for its big expo later this month at the new Spaceport America, announced yesterday it would hand out the largest award ever in medicine. The aim is quick and cheap DNA sequencing of the human genome—100 genomes in 10 days at first, then 100 more patients and celebrities like Larry King and Google's Larry Page in the next six months.

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And as Nobel Prize week continues, the first "legacy" winner emerged when Stanford's Dr. Roger D. Kornberg took the chemistry award—47 years after his father took the medical Nobel. Kornberg's work follows the decoding of DNA blueprints into messenger RNA, making it the second RNA-based Nobel win this week as Americans swept the scientific awards for the first time since 1983. –Matt Sullivan

Hubble's new finds include close-orbiting planets that look like this artists rendering of a transiting extrasolar planet.